Blended value

For example, under a blended value proposition, a for-profit business would consider their social and environmental impact on society alongside their financial performance measurement.

Within the same context, non-profits would consider their financial efficiency and sustainability in tandem with their social and environmental performance.

Under the blended value framework, an apparel company, for example, that sources its clothes from a sweatshop factory—like the factory involved in the 2013 Savar building collapse—would generate a low level of social value.

Emerson proposed the term “Blended Value” within the context of impact investing to describe the various categories of returns an investor should be looking for.

Emerson posits the idea that measuring investments purely in terms of financial returns is a disingenuous assessment of reality because there are social and environmental implications to any business activity.